How long are we traveling for?” I asked, clinging to Micah.

He lowered his eyes, looking at me. “It’s a ways out, but we’re almost there.”

“Where is it?”

“You’ll see.”

“I need to go back and work on the spells. If I want to stay on the council, I’ll have to prove to Gisiroth that I’m of use, and that it’s a mistake to kick me out.”

Micah’s grip tightened around my waist. “I’ll be there to work through it with you once we’re done here.”

“Why the sudden change of heart?”

“I told you. I couldn’t sleep a wink last night. I… I walked past your room. Gaius was in there, sitting on your bed. Sulking even more than he usually does. Your wardrobe was open and empty. Rylan had ordered everything that would remind us of you cleared out.”

My chest tightened. Everything? “That ass.” Some part of me didn’t want to believe it’d all be over, and I did leave plenty of valuables behind. Somehow, I thought I’d be able to get them back. “He really hates me that much? He’s as unpredictable as fire.”

Micah shook his head. “No, I think it was because he was hurting too, and that he didn’t want any reminders because it just made it harder. It was too difficult for me. So I caved. I decided I cared less for recognition, and more for you, because the lack of your presence was suffocating. I might regret this all later. It’s a lot to decide at once, but I followed my instincts because I couldn’t hold them back, and I came looking.”

A lump formed in my throat. I sank closer into his touch. “Thank you.”

“We’ve arrived,” he said.

He lowered himself into an insanely large cavern with golden light streaming from all sides. A multitude of waterfalls flowed from cliffs jutting out from the sides of the enormous cavern, and a huge lake lay in the center of it all. The waters had a sparkling, rippling effect that reflected the colors of the rainbow. Silhouettes of birds flew across the rays of light, and the sound of nature surrounded us. It was gorgeous. I looked over the expanse in awe.

“What is this place?” I asked.

“The others don’t know about it. It’s my secret place, where I come to rest my mind and spread my wings.”

“Don’t you always do that to get around?”

“I’m not talking about these wings.” He let me down. Even the grass here was pillowy and soft beneath my shoes.

I bent down to touch the river streaming in front of me. The water was cool to the touch, and the air here was windy and slightly chilly—much better than the warmth of Raynea. I’d already gotten used to the heat, and perhaps the atmosphere in this cavern was too cold for me. I rubbed my hands over my sleeves.

I turned around to look at Micah, and that was when I saw him stripping.

“Holy Aereala,” I said, covering my eyes. I darted my gaze back down to the river and felt my cheeks heat.

“I can’t talk after shifting into a dragon,” he said. “So just climb on once I’m in my dragon form.”

His words took a while to make sense. All I could envision was his nudity. “You’re going to wha—”

I heard a cracking sound. It was almost gruesome. I deliberated over turning around. “Micah?”

A growl, low enough to shake the ground, came from behind.

I spun to look where Micah had been. In his place was a huge beast with iridescent white scales. Its hide shimmered in the rays of the sun, sparkling in an opalescent array of beauty. The beast towered over me. I’d seen draerin before, higher dragons who had smaller dragon forms, but they couldn’t compare to Micah. Draerin had matted scales and were not nearly as large.

Micah in dragon form, however, was a sight to behold. My breathing slowed as I took small, tentative steps toward him.

He lowered his head, bowing, as if to tell me he wouldn’t hurt me.

“You’re beautiful,” I said.

A rumbling, like a chuckle, shook from the dragon.

I wasn’t sure how to get onto him. His torso in dragon form was already more than twice my height. I frowned, not knowing what to do. He swung his tail in front of me, providing me a step to climb on. I still struggled getting on, but managed to eventually.

There were large ridges on his back. His entire body was warm to the touch. I grabbed one of his protruding scales and steadied my legs between another two. “I still can’t believe this is happening.”

His folded out his wings. Each time he flapped them, he caused a huge gust that fanned the flora, making it sway. I held on tightly as he lifted off the ground. I was used to heights—the princes flying me around had made me—but being on the back of a full-sized dragon was a different experience entirely. Surprisingly, Micah’s scent of sweet honey hadn’t left him. I’d never expected a dragon to smell sweet, but he did.

He took off. My heart raced and I held on for dear life. He traveled so much faster in dragon form. The winds flew past me, flailing my hair behind my back. I had to squint so the winds wouldn’t get into my eyes.

It was an exhilarating experience. Scary, but fun, and a wide grin split my cheeks. Micah banked across a sharp cliff, and my chest fell as he did. I yelped and gripped his scales even more tightly, taking in a sharp breath. “Do that again.”

More rumbling vibrated through Micah. He did as I asked, and I shrieked and laughed at the same time, feeling my blood rushing and pounding through my ears. “Aereala bless me. I’m never going to tire of this.” Riding a dragon was probably the best feeling in the world.

Micah took me through the expanse of the cavern, showing me its grandeur. Some green gemstones sparkled through it, and in some darker corners, I saw colorful vines dangling from the ceiling. In the middle of the crystal-clear lake, fish swam, and one of them was so big that it probably could swallow me whole. It took me a moment to figure out that it was a hydrocus—a rare species I never thought I’d see in person.

On the back of Micah, between his wings, I soared. Excitement and wonder rushed through me. I’d needed this all my life. It was such a far cry from the endless stretches of corridors in the palace. These sights and sounds—they made me feel alive.

I couldn’t tire of flying, but Micah soon set me down at the same spot he’d shifted. I slid off his back, feeling numb from what I’d just experienced. I was all smiles and trying to recover from the giddiness.

Then his body shrank. The same cracking sounded again. I peered back at the river, blushing, knowing he was probably naked behind me.

I rubbed my lips together, wondering if I was exuding too much nervousness. I heard him shuffling behind me, probably putting back on his pants.

“Sera.” his raspy voice said.

I jolted when his touch brushed across my arms. “Yeah?” I swallowed.

“You enjoyed that.”

“I did.”

He spun me around and made me look up at him. “I did too. I’d never let anyone ride me before.”

Staring at his blue eyes this much could probably send me to heaven and back. Then they flashed into a dragon’s yellow.

His jaw tightened. “But it’s strange…”

“What is?”

His eyes weren’t turning back to blue. “Being in dragon form… It made my dragon tell me to…”

“To?” I asked. He ran his fingers across the side of my face and stopped at my collarbone. His touch prickled my skin, sending a thrill through me.

Could he hear my heart racing?

“We should go back,” he said.

What did his dragon tell him to do? I needed to know, but felt like if I prodded, I’d be asking for something I wasn’t ready for. I nodded, wondering why my whole body suddenly felt so jittery, then replied, “We should. It’s getting late and we have a food shortage to solve.”

A smile broke through. “Just another worry.”

I let him sweep me up, this time in human arms instead of on scales, and Micah carried me back to Raynea.

* * *

When I blinked my eyes open, the first thing I thought about was how hot it was. I pried a heavy leg from mine, then gaped my mouth open when I realized that the leg belonged to Micah. We were both on the floor, papers all around us.

When had we fallen asleep?

I searched the back of my mind for a memory of what happened before I nodded off.

We were going through a list of possible spells, relating them to my expertise of horticulture, and trying to see which might work.

My scapulae ached from the awkward position I’d been sleeping in. Many girls in Constanria probably dreamed of sleeping next to one of the princes, but it wasn’t as amazing as it sounded. Not when both of us had spent the night on the wooden floor, and I woke up to my bones protesting how uncomfortable my sleep had been.

The sound of paper shuffling echoed through my new, quiet room as I pulled myself to a seating position. Micah pried his eyes open.

He rubbed them, then looked at me with a light smile. “Your hair has a life of its own in the morning.”

“I know,” I said, trying to pull it straight. It was probably crankier than me in the wee hours, and simply wouldn’t listen.

He sat up and hooked a hand around my neck. My breath hitched.

Frederick burst in, swinging the door wide open and hitting it against the wall. He hadn’t knocked. He said in loud gasps, “I have… some of the things… you said you needed yesterday—” He paused, then gave us a wide-eyed look. “Uh, am I interrupting something?”

I forced myself away from Micah, hearing a growl coming from him. “Nothing at all,” I told Frederick. I tugged myself to my feet and my knees made a cracking sound from being so stiff. “What did you bring?”

“Your errands are giving me a dragon-load worth of exercise.” He was covered in sweat. “These things are heavy, and unlike you, I don’t have the luxury of personal hidraes to fetch me around.” He hadn’t even been carrying the items by hand. He was lugging them in a trolley, but even that was probably too troublesome. He dragged the pots, bag of seeds, and cages into the room.

One hidrae, I thought. The other three princes wanted nothing to do with me.

“Aren’t you supposed to be at the council?” I asked, bending down to inspect the saplings.

He grabbed a towel, sat down, and wiped his forehead. He was breathing a little too hard. Frederick ought to lay off the fatty foods. It was affecting his health. “I’m taking the day off. Never mind they’ll cut my pay. I gave some of your notes to our teammates. They’ll be able to handle it. Thought it’ll be better for me to help you, because I don’t want to see your bum get kicked out the gates of the palace.”

“What did I do to deserve you?” I asked. Micah helped me lift some of the plants onto the table.

Frederick shrugged. “I honestly have no idea. I’m just such a gourd-geous guy.”

Micah scrunched his nose up. “Does he always make jokes this dull?”

“You’ll learn to love it,” I said.

Micah shrugged. He proceeded to pick up the papers from the ground. “So, we went through the effects of temperature on plants yesterday, how it causes them to lose more water. Of course, last year, we tried changing to crops that are more resistant to heat stress, but even that is becoming insufficient due to how long and dry the high summers have become.”

“So I had this idea,” I said.

Frederick stood up and made his way to the kitchen. “Don’t mind me… I’m just famished from not eating breakfast. And all that walking.” He took out a pan and some bowls and began cracking some eggs. “Continue.”

“Dragons are resistant to heat, right?” I said, trying to talk over the clanking Frederick was making.

Frederick gave me a glance before looking back at his cooking. “Yeah, and?” He lit up the stove with a match.

I pressed my index finger to my chin. “We’re trying to solve a huge famine here. Which means we have to think big.”

“I’m liking the sound of that.” Frederick poured the stirred eggs into the pan and began maneuvering it. How good he was with the equipment impressed me. He barely even had to use his spatula—most of the work came from his wrists.

Micah arranged the sheets of paper. “Sera wants to alter the spell the Dragon Mother used to create dragons, and use it to rearrange the make-up of the new seeds.”

It was common knowledge that dragons were creatures of magic, and that they were created by a faux-goddess, the Dragon Mother, over a million years ago. The schools had taught that to every child. The first queen, Constance Everstone, knew the spell and had a copy of it. It was rumored to be kept in the royal records, only available to the king and the head of the Council of Intelligence.

Frederick’s eggs flew too high, missed the pan, and dropped to the ground, making a splattering sound. “What?” He gaped at me, then at his ruined breakfast. “My eggs! And what?”

Frederick grabbed a towel and proceeded to clean up his mess. He scrubbed the ground as he shot me a questioning glare. “Are you out of your mind? How in Aereala are we supposed to get that spell in the first place? We don’t even know if it exists.”

I sighed, looking through the sheets of paper. “Micah doesn’t know any good ones for heat resistance. Most of the spells kept for combat are those relating to ice. What use would such spells be to the ancients if the old dragons, mostly hidraes, were resistant to heat already? It makes sense that they wouldn’t keep them when the first queen ordered everything to be destroyed.”

Frederick got on his feet and tossed the dirty rag into the basin. “Then think of something else.” He cracked more eggs.

“We have one spell we could try,” I said. I nudged Micah.

Micah took a seed from the bag and muttered the spell we had come up with over it. The magic fizzled from his soul beads and drifted over the seed. The seed didn’t react.

“Nope,” I said. “Doesn’t work.” I turned to Micah. “So, how do we get into the royal records?”

“We ask Rylan,” Micah said.

“What?”

I felt my shields shaking. They’d opened up to Micah, but I still hadn’t decided to let the other brothers in—and they didn’t want in anyway. I didn’t wish to go back and start begging Rylan for favors, not after how we’d parted.

I frowned. “Couldn’t we just… break in or something?”

“Rylan’s been given more kingly duties lately, since Father is getting old. I’ve seen him go through the royal records a few times.”

“Sneaking in sounds like the better option.”

“You’re not going to get in if you try that route. It’s guarded on all sides by drerkyn and draerin, and the numbers are too much for even me to fight off.”

“Surely we can conjure a spell to cloak us or something?”

“They have their own safeguards against that.”

“Yeah, but we can come up with a better one.”

“Why are you so against this? It’s just asking my brother. Why go through the extra trouble?”

I clenched my fist. “Because…” Because he’d hurt me, and I didn’t want to face him again. “I don’t think if I’d be able to manage it if I have to look at him again. When we’re not…” What were we, anyway? “I don’t to relive him treating me coldly.”

“I’ll ask in your stead.”

“No,” I said. “This is my favor. I’m the one who needs help.” And maybe, despite my fear, I needed another excuse to see him. “Do you think I can? With him giving the royal decree?”

Frederick sat down, finally managing to sort himself a plate of breakfast. He watched us our conversation as he forked a perfect-looking omelet into his mouth, not minding that he was eavesdropping in plain sight.

Micah snorted. “It’s for show. Decrees only have power when they are enforced. What’s he going to do when we defy it? Lop all his brothers’ heads off?”

“Does he have the power to do that?”

“No. Nobles and officials are protected by stricter laws. You know that.”

Yeah, I was supposed to, but my brain often stopped working whenever it came to the brothers.

“Sooo,” Frederick drawled, spreading some jam over a slice of bread. I wondered if, as a good friend, I should snatch that entire loaf away from him. He had to worry for the health of his heart. “You two are just going to waltz straight up to the crown prince and go, ‘Hey can we use the royal library, filled with all those super-secret stuff and whatnot?’”

I sighed. This was starting to sound ridiculous. What if Rylan disagreed? Seemingly, I was an enemy of the state, and I wasn’t sure how he felt about me anymore. “That’s the plan.”

Micah took my hand in his. “When do you want to go?”

“We only have four days left to come up with something. I suppose we’ll have to do it as soon as possible.”

His gaze darted to my hair. “You might want to get that sorted out before walking out of this building.”

I touched my tangled strands. “Yeah. We’ll go find him after I tame this beast.” How was Micah’s hair still so perfect after an entire night of sleeping on the ground?

“I’m guessing you’re leaving me behind again?” Frederick said.

I winced. “Sorry. Exercise is good for your heart,” I told him. “Try to think of it positively.”

“Then why does my heart protest so much every time I have too much of it?”

I shrugged. “Sometimes, you have to make yourself feel uncomfortable to get what you need.” Like how I had to push myself to see Rylan now. I needed to see him, not just for the spell, but also because I was starting to miss him so much it hurt.

I walked toward my suitcase and looked for my comb.